Mamou residents 'thankful to be alive'

Sep. 15, 2008

Written by

Bob Heist
Louisiana Gannett News

MAMOU -- With his hand placed over a heart that's beating to its second pacemaker, Cleveland Fontenot stood amongst the rubble that represented the last 21 years of his life at the corner of Cross and Fred streets on Saturday.

Words were understandably few as he looked through what used to be the back wall of his one-story brick home. The tears, though, came pretty easy.

"I just lost my wife six months ago," sobbed Fontenot, 71, after surviving a tornado's fury on Friday. "I had my second heart operation before that. ...